I Took a Photo!

I took a photo of Steve Aoki and Benji Madden.
Story time: Long before Steve was the top signal for every NFT project he was a nightlife friend and occasional client. I photographed a handful of events for him back when I was a party photographer. I was living in NYC at the time and he was based in LA so it wasn't like we were close or anything, but I always liked the dude.👇

So it's maybe 2008 and I am in LA and Steve's label DimMak threw a party every Tuesday at a place called Cinespace. I reached out to the label and got on the list +1 because I wanted to impress this girl I went to high school with who I always had a crush on. She was out in LA and I figured I could use my hipster nightlife cred to show her a fun night. She was already impressed I was on the list for this "cool" party so it was going well so far.

The party probably started at 9 or 10, but I wouldn't be caught dead at a club before midnight like some nightlife tourist, so we hit a diner for late night dinner before walking over to the club a few blocks away. We got there at maybe 12:15am and the door guy tells me the list is closed. You had to be there before midnight. I tried to explain that I knew Steve and had worked for the label and all that but the door guy did not give a fuck.  They would still let me in, but a) I would have to pay and b) I would have to take my camera to the car which was a few blocks farther than the restaurant and she was in heels. Anything I cool points I had were gone.

Before I could embarrass myself any further the flash of a half dozen paparazzi lit up the block. I had no idea what sort of A-list celebrity was coming to the party when they got closer I could tell it was Steve with Benji Madden. The paparazzi were interested because I believe Joel was dating Paris Hilton at the time. She wasn't even with them, but it didn't matter for the paps.

As the club was trying to rush them inside, Steve saw me and I told him what happened. He grabbed me and my friend and brought us up to their table and poured her a drink. My cool points had been reactivated. After that it was smooth sailing and we had a great night... at least until we got back to my rental car...

When we get back to the car an incredibly drunk old man is stumbling down the street and falls onto my car. He only spoke spanish and I could barely make out what he was saying anyway. I helped him up and was trying to figure out what to do when a member of the notorious street gang MS-13 ran up to me and started screaming in my face for touching him. If you are wondering how I knew he was in MS-13 it was because he had Mara Salvatrucha tattooed to his face. Needless to say I was terrified. I told him I was just trying to help the guy, but he kept yelling at me until I got into the car and got the fuck out of there. Good times in LA. The end.

Ps. That dude is definitely not in MS-13 but the vibe was right. That guy was super into photography and had all sorts of questions for me about cameras and showed me ton of photos he had taken of lily pads and flowers on his phone. Don't judge a book by it's cover even if that cover says FUCK OFF on it.

a harem of wild horses 

https://linktr.ee/heathernstout

I haven't seen him since the NFT explosion, but would be cool to catch up after these last few years.

The revolution will be decentralized! Cast your shot /itookaphoto - /itookavideo - /moviesuggestions - /tvsuggestions - https://linktr.ee/inceptionally 

Oh sorry, I just realized what you mean. Yes, that's her.

Read! Was that the hs crush in second cast?

420 $degen

I guarantee you have some wild and fun times & stories